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Review: Samsung 7 Series Chronos

By Gregory Peake
Johannesburg, 13 Mar 2013
The Samsung 7 Series Chronos seems to have been designed with the creative and multimedia-driven user in mind.
The Samsung 7 Series Chronos seems to have been designed with the creative and multimedia-driven user in mind.

Samsung's selling point on its 7 Series Chronos Notebook (Model: 700Z5C-S02) is speed and power.

On paper, it's a nice looking package, with impressive specifications. Taking a look at it while holding it in your hands shows a nice looking package too: with a slim-shaped shiny aluminium case, it's rather good looking.

It seems to have been designed with the creative and multimedia-driven user in mind, but is definitely capable of satisfying those who just want a crisp screen and responsive laptop for their daily work, or those who want to play games on the go without paying top prices.

Look and feel

Samsung's pitching a 'Superbright Screen' as a feature, but I'm not buying it. Even when plugged in and on full brightness, it was much darker than a desktop's LCD, at one stage even leading me to wonder whether it was night in the game I was playing (it wasn't). The colours and contrast take a hit as a result of this less-than-resplendent display which, for a laptop arguably targeted at the visually minded, is a less than stellar verdict.

This dimness isn't a deal breaker; however, as the screen has a matte finish that does a good job removing its need to fight with the lighting in your surroundings, capably resisting sunlight and reflections. This, combined with the size of the screen, means it comes out mostly unscathed, leaving a neutral impression.

Battery life

A major plus on this model is the battery, employing the 'Samsung Power Plus', which allows for longer battery life and a higher charge (about five times longer than a standard laptop, they claim).

It, definitely, lives up to expectations, yet falls short of exceeding them. It's more than capable of rendering a HD movie for three to five hours and I was able to get a decent couple hours out of it playing fairly graphics-intensive titles on high graphics settings (but not highest).

As a business-solution, the battery life is excellent, I found myself on the wrong side of 25% at a conference and, after swapping it to power-saving mode and lowering the brightness, was pleasantly surprised to see it predicted six hours of battery life. Even though I was only using a word-processor, this is a key feature that speaks in its favour.

Graphical performance

Graphical performance was good, the Geforce 6 Series is still new and, definitely, meets the average user's needs in this mobile package. For creative hobbyists and amateur enthusiasts, it will probably cover the bulk of your usage requirements, but may start letting you down when you get on to those larger projects (or things like video rendering and 3D animation).

Samsung 7 Series Chronos

Pros: Fast CPU, Turbo boost, good graphics, Samsung power setting boosts charge-life extensively, Express Cache useful feature, 8 Cell Battery, Matte screen to combat glare for anywhere use.
Cons: Expensive, Brightness not very illuminating, not full HD, no special cooling solution despite powerhouse hardware.
Summary: A good portable media station, allowing for HD and Gaming on the go and long working-hours for the professionals out there. A little expensive, but performance driven and convincing in its role.
Recommended retail price: R15 999.

The Samsung Chronos 7 Series packs a Nvidia Geforce GT 640M (with 1GB of GDDR5 VRAM) meaning that it can run recent games (Hitman Absolution, Far Cry 3, etc) on medium to high settings - depending on the game and how low a resolution you are willing to settle for (natively it's just shy of 1080p HD, sitting at 1600x900, so one interval down still provides crisp visuals).

It does obviously affect your battery life, mobile gaming is still a little short of feasible, even with its impressive battery it can't survive a 'true' gaming session when getting hit by the 640M's 32W total draw power (TDP).

I tested it more extensively with TESV: Skyrim and Arma2: Combined operations and both performed well with graphics set high enough to appreciate the visuals. Arma2's responsiveness was especially surprising as in my experience it demands a lot of processing power while giving little back in terms of gameplay performance (and its reputation agrees with me).

Storage

Graphics aside, it comes with a 750GB hard drive and employs 'Express Cache' technology, which integrates flash memory to allow for faster read/write and access performance, as well as shorter turn on times.

Its current generation i7 3615QM processor is definitely an acceptable choice. The 2.4Ghz quad-core is less than a year old and will keep up with whatever you throw at it. With a total draw power of 45W (TDP), extended intensive use will drain your battery fairly quickly however, so exercise caution when you're not plugged in to charge.

Intensive graphics and processing work will probably limit your charge to around two hours, as the 8 Cell battery is listed as 80Wh.

If you're plugged in, then the Turbo Boost feature will be a welcome addition to any intensive work you do, allowing for a quick power boost to your CPU and overall system performance.

Conclusion

A little more costly than it perhaps should be when considered on the global market, the Chronos 7 Series is still an excellent purchase. Locally, it's probably one of the best value upper-range options for a multimedia laptop out there. Currently, carrying a recommended retail price of R15 999 - the Samsung Chronos 7 Series has a lot speaking in its favour, only really being let down by its screen brightness and price tag (which is a problem across the local market).

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